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Late 50s-Early 60s Action-Adventure genre (1 Viewer)

Charles Ellis

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One thing that may rule against these shows is that most were in B/W. But on the other hand, a lot of these shows had interesting guest stars: established big names and rising stars. I'd love to see Adventures in Paradise in particular for its big name guest stars and locations. Last week I watched the DVD set of Coronet Blue, the sadly short-lived CBS series which was apparently the last produced by Herbert Brodkin, and the only one in color. He was responsible for The Defenders, The Nurses, and Brenner. Having seen The Nurses at the Paley Center and Brenner on the DECADES channel, I feel these shows are indeed worthy of rediscovery via DVD. With all of Route 66 and Naked City released on DVD, I think there should be a chance for the vintage B/W drama series of the 50s-60s to be released. I am surprised that the rest of The Defenders hasn't been released yet, considering it was such a acclaimed show and younger viewers would be interested what Robert Reed did before becoming "Mike Brady". Even more surprising is the absence of East Side, West Side- I mean, a TV drama starring George C. Scott and Cicely Tyson AND IT"S NOT ON DVD????? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot indeed...

As for the Warner shows- all the westerns have been put out, but why not the detective shows of the era? Robert Conrad, Connie Stevens, and Edd Byrnes are still around and could do commentary for Hawaiian Eye and 77 Sunset Strip. I met Ms. Stevens some years back about it and she thought it may had to do with the fact that some of the Hawaiian Eye episodes were compiled into feature films which were shown abroad. On the other hand, I have also heard that the stumbling block is our old nemesis music clearance rights.

Personally, they're longshots, but I'd love to see Channing because of Ed Nelson (a year before reaching stardom on Peyton Place) and The New Breed (featuring John Beradino shortly before becoming Dr. Steve Hardy on General Hospital).
 

MartinP.

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Which makes my point exactly. You had to be there. I haven't found too many people who didn't experience these shows the first time around that now have the same affinity for them.

Well, in part you're right that "you had to be there" due to the fact they were not shown much (syndicated) afterwards, were they? I was too young to watch them when originally aired, but later on I knew of them, but they were never syndicated at any time when I might have watched them. Even Burke's Law got syndicated where I was, but I never had the opportunity to see a 77 Sunset Strip and Hawaiian Eye until two years ago and Surfside-6 last year. Have yet to see a Bourbon Street Beat. It wasn't like they were found in syndication to develop any sort of affinity to them at all. But I've enjoyed them now.
 

LouA

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Another show with spectacular location work is ZIV's "Boston Blackie" series with Kent Taylor. It's a wonderful look around the Los Angeles area in the early '50s: Waterfront, Angel's Flight, factories, amusement parks and a chase through the freeway system during its construction. I've noticed the RKO water tower in the background during a shoot-out in a trailer park and a fight scene occurs around train cars with the Pathe' Industries building behind it.
I liked Boston Blackie when I was very young . BB seems like a very early ZIV show. I agree that 1950's Los Angeles can be an really atmospheric place to film mysteries of film noir . Recently I bought all 4 volumes of the Alpha Boston Blackie releases . I've only watched the first 2 episodes , but the audio and video quality are really bad . Since every ZIV show that's been released legitimately has looked great on DVD , I'm guessing this is just a continuation of Alpha's shoddy releases . Is Boston Blackie in the Public domain?
Incidentally, RBAILEY I did enjoy the 2 episodes of BB I watched despite the challenging A/V!
VCI put out a 10 episode DVD of Waterfront a while back, and the quality was more than acceptable . Since it's labeled as Vol 1 , I was expecting more which never materialized
 

RBailey

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I liked Boston Blackie when I was very young . BB seems like a very early ZIV show. I agree that 1950's Los Angeles can be an really atmospheric place to film mysteries of film noir . Recently I bought all 4 volumes of the Alpha Boston Blackie releases . I've only watched the first 2 episodes , but the audio and video quality are really bad . Since every ZIV show that's been released legitimately has looked great on DVD , I'm guessing this is just a continuation of Alpha's shoddy releases . Is Boston Blackie in the Public domain?
Incidentally, RBAILEY I did enjoy the 2 episodes of BB I watched despite the challenging A/V!
VCI put out a 10 episode DVD of Waterfront a while back, and the quality was more than acceptable . Since it's labeled as Vol 1 , I was expecting more which never materialized

I recorded about 15-20 episodes years ago when some of the episodes aired on The Nostalgia Channel. They aired 16mm prints that were complete and looked pretty good. I purchased Volume 1 from Alpha as well and was shocked how bad they looked. The Decades channel occasionally airs a couple of episodes including one titled "The Heist Job" that features Billy Halop from The Dead End Kids. This one ends with a chase and fight scene on a expansion bridge that's pretty impressive. Have you seen the Timeless release of HARBOR COMMAND? It looks great and also has some great location footage as well.
 

Tom.W

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Having seen The Nurses at the Paley Center and Brenner on the DECADES channel, I feel these shows are indeed worthy of rediscovery via DVD.

Timeless released 15 episodes of Brenner in 2008. I don't know if it's still available.

Personally, they're longshots, but I'd love to see Channing because of Ed Nelson (a year before reaching stardom on Peyton Place) and The New Breed (featuring John Beradino shortly before becoming Dr. Steve Hardy on General Hospital).

Are you possibly thinking of Jason Evers, the lead in Channing? He looks a little like Ed Nelson.

I'd like to see Channing too. It would make a nice companion to Mr. Novak. Unfortunately, it's not well known compared to Novak.
 

LouA

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I recorded about 15-20 episodes years ago when some of the episodes aired on The Nostalgia Channel. They aired 16mm prints that were complete and looked pretty good. I purchased Volume 1 from Alpha as well and was shocked how bad they looked. The Decades channel occasionally airs a couple of episodes including one titled "The Heist Job" that features Billy Halop from The Dead End Kids. This one ends with a chase and fight scene on a expansion bridge that's pretty impressive. Have you seen the Timeless release of HARBOR COMMAND? It looks great and also has some great location footage as well.
Yes I have Harbor Command . It's s good show and the Timeless DVD set is of nice quality like all of the other legitimate ZIV releases out there .
I was hoping for a release of Harbor Master as well - that's a ZIV show I've never seen . I DO hope someone thinks about releasing some of the other ZIV programs .
 
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